Dallas Cowboys All-Pro linebacker DeMarcus Ware on violence, bounties, and playing within the rules in the new NFL

DeMarcus Ware doesn't fit the profile of a guy who wrecks quarterbacks for a living. The Dallas Cowboys All-Pro linebacker—one of the most feared pass rushers in the NFL—is a brains-over-brawn kind of athlete, which is a scary thought when you're bringing the kind of brawn he's got. This is a strange time in the NFL to be a sack specialist, though: as most of them will tell you, the league slaps fines on guys for breathing too hard on a quarterback—an unmistakable trend in the rules that often seems at odds with the sport's broader glorification of hard hits and jacked-up highlights. Ware spoke with GQ about the NFL's ambivalence toward violence, how he stays on the right side of the rules—and the moment in his career when he was so scared that he didn't know if he could ever play again.

···

GQ: Who were the pass rushers you grew up watching?
DeMarcus Ware:
The guy I really like is [Rams Hall of Famer] Deacon Jones. When I see Deacon Jones, we sit down and have deep conversations. We just talk about stuff.

GQ: I met Deacon Jones once and five seconds into the conversation, he told me he once had fifty-five sacks in a season, before they officially kept track of sack totals.
DeMarcus Ware: [Laughs] Of course he did. He's a great guy. Every time I see Deacon, I say, "What's up?" and right away he's telling me, "You've got to work on this," or, "You've got to work on that." He says, "You've got to try the head slap" or "You're not trash talking right. You're not a good trash talker." He is straight up. When he talks, he doesn't sugarcoat anything. He's going to tell you straight up what he thinks. And he's ready to get right back out there and play. Like, now.

GQ: Is there a certain technique you've mastered others haven't? Signature moves?
DeMarcus Ware:
I'm the Emulator. I'm a technician. Every week, I'm going to have different moves based on the film I watch. I like revealing something totally different every Sunday. I'll get in the film room around 6 o'clock in the morning. I'll watch, say, three hours a day all by myself. I chart who is effective and see what works. Then, whatever that offensive tackle wasn't good at? I make sure I'm going to master it that whole week. I may even be uncomfortable with it, but I'm going to do it. Because I'm going to do all the negative things that you don't like. I'm going to get in your head.

GQ: It's such a chess game, because they're spending their whole week studying your tape.
DeMarcus Ware:
It is a chess match, and you know what? I love to play it. I like to know whatever those guys are doing. When people ask me, "How many moves do you have?" I tell them, "Unlimited." Because every day, it changes. Usually pass rushers are like, "Here's what I'm going to do and you'll have to stop me." But I'm like, "You know what? I don't know what I'm going to do." That way, they don't know how to stop me.

GQ: Tell me about a particular play from last season that you'd use as an example of this chess game.
DeMarcus Ware:
Week 3 versus the Redskins. Monday Night Football. It was a play with me and [fellow Cowboys outside linebacker] Anthony Spencer in the fourth quarter. All game, I kept going inside, going inside, going inside. Every time I'd come inside, the quarterback, Rex Grossman, would boot outside of me and the tackle and just flip it over to his running back in the flat. So, it's the last play of the game. I said, "Spencer, he's going to run out of the pocket outside of me. All I want you to do is run outside from your side and keep chasing him. Just run the loop. Run around your tackle and run really wide and keep chasing him." I saw it. I knew what would happen. I'd come inside and Grossman would go outside of me, looking to scramble and he'd flip the ball off to his back like he'd done the whole entire game. This time, though, Spencer would chase him down from behind.

GQ: And?
DeMarcus Ware:
I come inside and Grossman rolls outside thinking, "Well, I have a lot of time now. It's the last play of the game. I've got a lot of time and I'm going to make a play." But on the other side of the field, Spencer's going all the way around his man. Grossman's running from me, but he doesn't see Spencer coming. Boom—blindside. Spencer makes the play. Strips him. We recover the fumble. Game over.

GQ: Is that even more rewarding than being the guy who makes the hit?
DeMarcus Ware:
Oh, absolutely. I saw it! Just being on the same page, I told him what was going to happen and Spencer actually said, "I'm going to force the ball out. I'm going to make him fumble." He said that. Before the play. And it happened. We're like, "Man, it worked!" And the key there was the mental, not the physical. We had to think. We had to see it. Chess game.